ADDRESS OF PAUL VI TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE FORTY-FIRSTINTERNATIONAL EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS

Saturday, 19 April 1975

As we prepare to celebrate the Paschal Mystery and its special re-enactment in the days ahead, we turn our thoughts to an event that will take place next year: the Forty-first International Eucharistic Congress.

By its very international nature, this Eucharistic Congress is an event of worldwide importance.

From many parts of the world men and women will assemble to honor the mystery of Christ in his Eucharistic Sacrifice and presence, and to proclaim his Lordship. At the same time they will open their hearts, with new sensitivity and fresh concern, to the many urgent needs of their brethren - the just aspirations and legitimate anxieties of mankind. And to all these hungers of the human family, the Eucharistic Congress will offer, with confidence and loving faith, the only - the perfect - solution: Jesus himself, who said: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be hungry and he who believes in me will never thirst” (Io. 6, 35).

We pray that the nature of this ecclesial event will be readily understood and esteemed by all in the dignity of its purpose and in the simplicity and reverence due to its fulfillment. May Mary the Mother of Jesus and Mother of his Church obtain the grate for all men to recognize that her Son, who is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matth. 16, 16) is indeed the true Bread of Life who alone can satisfy the hungers of the human family.